1924 United Kingdom general election

1924 United Kingdom general election

← 1923 29 October 1924 1929 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	77.0% (5.9 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stanley Baldwin Ramsay MacDonald H. H. Asquith Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 23 May 1923 21 November 1922 30 April 1908 Leader's seat Bewdley Aberavon Paisley (defeated) Last election 258 seats, 38.0% 191 seats, 30.7% 158 seats, 29.7% Seats won 412 151 40[note 1] Seat change 154 40 118 Popular vote 7,418,983 5,281,626 2,818,717 Percentage 46.8% 33.3% 17.8% Swing 8.8% 2.6% 11.9%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results[a]
Diagram showing the composition of the House of Commons following the election
Prime Minister before election Ramsay MacDonald Labour Prime Minister after election Stanley Baldwin Conservative

The 1924 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 29 October 1924, as a result of the defeat of the Labour minority government, led by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, in the House of Commons on a motion of no confidence.^[1] It was the third general election to be held in less than two years. Parliament was dissolved on 9 October.^[2]

The Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin, performed better, in electoral terms, than in the 1923 general election and obtained a large parliamentary majority of 209. Labour, led by MacDonald, lost 40 seats. The election also saw the Liberal Party, led by H. H. Asquith, lose 118 of their 158 seats which helped to polarise British politics between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.

The Conservative landslide victory and the Labour defeat in this general election have been, in part, attributed to the Zinoviev letter, a forged document that was published as if it were genuine and sensationalised in the Daily Mail four days before the election. The Labour vote increased by around one million in comparison to the 1923 general election, but this was largely due to the party putting up 87 more candidates than it had in the previous election.

The Conservatives had called the previous 1923 election early to get a mandate for moving to a protectionist trade policy of imperial preference, but had lost their majority. In 1924, they reverted to free trade and regained power. They would propose protectionism at the next general election in 1929, again losing.

Along with 1964 and 1992 this is the first of three elections in the 20th Century to take place in the same year as a United States presidential election. This is also the closest instance in which both elections overlapped with the latter’s election taking place a week later.

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